Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay

Website : RickyJay.com

Ricky Jay is a noted contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Read Britannica's biography of Ricky Jay
BIOGRAPHY

Ricky Jay was a professional magician and the star of Broadway show Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. Jay has also made appearances in several Hollywood films.

He is the author of the best-seller Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, among others.

photograph: © Lori Sebastian

Primary Contributions (1)
The Conjurer
Magic, theatrical representation of the defiance of natural law. Legerdemain, meaning “light, or nimble, of hand,” and juggling, meaning “the performance of tricks,” were the terms initially used to designate exhibitions of deception. The words magic and conjuring had no theatrical significance…
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Publications (4)
Extraordinary Exhibitions: Broadsides from the Collection of Ricky Jay
Extraordinary Exhibitions: Broadsides from the Collection of Ricky Jay (May 2005)
An informal history of sensational, scientific, silly, satisfying, and startling attractions based on seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century broadsides from Ricky Jay's extraordinary collection. It includes observations on the convention of promoting such appearances, digressions on the manner and method of printing advertisements to do so, and insights into the psychology employed to that end. All are compiled in a monograph that is itself a shameless attempt to...
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Jay's Journal of Anomalies
Jay's Journal of Anomalies (December 2003)
By Ricky Jay
One of the New York Times's "Notable Books" and a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of the Year": Ricky Jay's brilliant excursion into the history of bizarre entertainments. Ingesters of stones, stoats, and swords have long compelled my attention. Signor Hervio Nano, the fantastic homunculus, defied conventional taxonomy. The well-trained flea has shown sufficient rationality to drive a chariot, impersonate Napoleon, or reenact the siege of Antwerp. Note the enduring popularity of severing...
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Cards As Weapons
Cards As Weapons (1988)
By Ricky Jay

A tongue-in-cheek look at the newest method of self-defense details the history of card-throwing, exercises to improve your throwing ability, and fantastic stunts

Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers
Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers (1986)
By Ricky Jay

A popular magician offers a guide to the most exotic entertainers in the history of showbusiness--from the amazing feats of handicapped individuals to the unusual talents of trained animals